Idea: Reboot Gamera for American TV?

[Pkmatrix]

On the ride to work this morning, my mind wandered through a forest of ideas I've been thinking on recently: reboots, the ongoing shift of money/talent from Film to Television, superhero/comic book movies, Giant Monsters, etc.

It occurred to me that the Streaming TV services (Netflix, Amazon, etc.) would actually be a great home for an American-produced Giant Monster series. While Ultraman or something like that was the obvious option, the more I thought about it the more I realized it would actually be a really interesting idea to have a pure Giant Monster series...and what better option would there be than Gamera?

Gamera is already the closest thing to a Giant Monster superhero out there, which is a good sell but so far not enough to justify a $100 Million movie from Hollywood. He's got an interesting backstory/mythology, you've got a good rogues gallery, and if we took inspiration from the Heisei films you've got a good recurring cast of characters. Plus, and this is what's selling me on the idea, if the plan is to sell it to Netflix the series can be SHORT. Instead of figuring out how to maintain good effects with decent screentime over 26 episodes like you would on a linear broadcast network like Fox or NBC, you could instead mimic the production format of Sherlock: three episodes of ~90 minutes each. That's basically the same thing as producing a trilogy of new movies, but instead of releasing them in theaters they go direct to Netflix!

What's interesting too is the budget for each 90-minute episode would be comparable, if not higher, to anything Gamera has had in the past. Netflix typically spends something like $4 Million per episode on their shows so $6 Million for what amounts to an episode-and-a-half isn't unreasonable. If Toho Kingdom is to be believed, Gamera 3 cost about $7 Million back in 1999 (I can't find what Gamera the Brave cost, but I presume it was similar), so we KNOW Gamera can be done well on this budget. (And that presumes something higher couldn't be negotiated.)

Thoughts? What do you think about this idea?

[XvGojira]

Too good to happen. And I'm sure there's some licensing costs in there as well that's not being taken into consideration.

But damn that'd be cool.

[The Shadow]

It would be cool to see happen, and just maybe with more Godzilla, Pacific Rim, and King Kong on the way we might see a Gamera series. Hopefully licensing or any unforeseen legal issues would not make it too difficult, I would like to think Kadokawa Pictures would embrace a chance like this to bring Gamera before the public again.

Like you already mentioned Pkmatrix, the typical 20 odd episode approach could be problematic. Besides Netflix and Amazon, Hulu could be a contender now that they've rescued the Mindy Project from cancellation and may also look to producing original shows in the near future. But if we're just talking a mini-series approach, which I agree would likely be the more suitable format, broadcast and cable channels could still be viable options.

SyFy seems to be slowly heading back to being more about science fiction than they have in years (hopefully it will be official one of these days and we'll see sci-fi new and old return to the network) and the broadcast networks might desire a Gamera mini-series as something they could run on Sunday nights for few weeks during the Summer and Winter lulls of their main shows. A Summer broadcast might be especially attractive as many viewers would check out, say, the latest Godzilla movie on Friday or Saturday and could then tune in to watch Gamera on Sunday.

[Henry88]

[Pkmatrix]

[kiryugoji04]

Give me the money and I'll make you a pilot.

[The Great MM]

I could go for this. If not a full-on TV series, a mini-series of 5-10 episodes long. An hour each at best. I honestly wouldn't trust Syfy with it at this point, but give it to Netflix (or AMC or HBO... if they could take the bait) would be ideal, IMO. What they would really have to do is find a good balance of Showa and Heisei Gamera. A balance even better than Gamera: The Brave. If this would happen, I can only cross my fingers that the Gyaos, while they would have too appear, wouldn't be overused and seen in every episode.

[mbozzo]

A Gamera television miniseries might make some money for both the Japanese and American companies that created it.

[EricDent]

Gendy Tartakowsky (sp) was talking about doing a Gamera animated series sometime in the past.

[Jinzo Ningen]

Talk about a resurrected thread from the dead! LOL. Yeah, I recall discussion of an animated American series. If memory serves, wasn't that idea one of the driving forces behind the (aborted) line of Trendmaster GAMERA toys?

Anyhow... I still say that Legendary should go for Gamera as a lead for the continuation of their MonsterVerse series... especially if Toho doesn't work with them to renew Godzilla after G v K comes out in 2020 (if it and K:KotM prove to be huge cash windfalls). Gamera is well known enough to keep the series alive & well here in America. Most importantly, he's been proven to be a character that CAN be taken 100% seriously ...if done properly and with respect; (thank you, Mr. Kaneko). It'd be great to see him go up against some re-vamped classic foes... plus some all-new baddies as well.

[Baltan II]

The toys weren't aborted, everything came out actually... just nothing came of it. Line came and went with little fanfare, but they were damn cool if you could get into the Trendmasters aesthetic. Never heard anything about an animated series tying into it, but that was basically exactly what happened with the Kenner Aliens and Jurassic Park: Chaos Effect lines so it's certainly plausible.

[lhb412]

I think I've shared my idea for a Gamera animated series before. Basically, use GOTU as a starting point, beginning the plot in a similar way and using the Atlantean backstory. I'd also make Asagi the main character, or at least the audience identification character for the young people who would be the target demo!

Other Gamera foes could be wrapped into the Atlantean backstory, with the Earth based monsters being fellow ancient artificial constructs and all the aliens being attracted to Earth by mana depletion. I kind of like the idea of the Gyoas and Iris and maybe their human followers being the ultimate villains of the series, and the Alien Invaders acting something like spoilers interfering with the main conflict.

[klen7]

^ have you read the Matt Frank Gamera comic?

[lhb412]

^ I've probably seen most of it over the last couple of years, but I've never actually read it all the way through at one time.